Cedar rolls past LCC to advance

Cedar rolls past LCC to advance

WAYNE — The Cedar Catholic boys basketball team advanced to the Class C2-5 Subdistrict finals with a 75-58 win over Laurel-Concord-Coleridge.

Two Trojans, Matthew Becker and Riley Arens, posted double-doubles in the win as Cedar dominated from the start.

Becker led the team with 20 points and 11 rebounds and three blocks, all team highs, and he also tied for the team high three assists alongside Jake Keiser and Jackson Eickhoff. Becker also had one steal on the night.

Arens had 14 points and 10 rebounds for his double- double, along with one assist and one steal.

Cedar started the fourth quarter with a 59-41 lead. LCC was able to cut that lead to 13 points, but Matthew Becker’s dunk with 2:28 left in the game.

LCC struggled in the sec- ond half, in part because the Bears leading scorer was on the bench with foul trouble. Noah Schutte had three fouls by halftime, and early in the third quarter he picked up his fourth foul. He then sat until six minutes left in the fourth quarter. The Bears were able to make a run, but it was too late for a comeback.

Cedar head coach Matt Steffen said that the early lead the Trojans got in the rst quarter, he still knew what the Bears shooters could do at any point in the game.

“Those kids are capable of playing better than that, they went in and relaxed,” said Steffen. “If you give those kids open looks, they are going to hit them.”

Cedar prevented open looks, but LCC still went 8-24, or 33% from three point range.

Cedar found scoring from everywhere. Four players scored in the double digits, including sophomore Jake Keiser, who scored 15. Keiser led the team at halftime with eight points. Steffen said he really executed well on both ends of the floor.

“He is a strong kid,” said Steffen. “He is actually good
at going to the hole and we talked to him about that being more his role. Hitting the three was a bonus, he isn’t a bad shooter, but he doesn’t shoot high percentage in games. He just hustles and plays great defense. That’s why he is on the oor.”

With the win, Cedar ad- vanced to face top seed Ponca in the Subdistrict Finals. The two teams had faced off once in the regular season, with Ponca winning 53-42. Steffen knows that he had a big task ahead, and revealed little of what the game plan would be.

“I’ll gure that out tomor- row and lose some sleep,” said Steffen.

Cedar and Ponca played on Thursday night with the winner advancing to the District Finals on Monday.